Your questions answered

Common questions NHS Trusts/CCGs and GP surgeries may want answered by ICS Diagnostics:

Why outsource my echocardiography service for remote reporting?

Our services, led by senior clinicians, address these key issues head on. You’ll receive secure access to our cloud-based echo system and experienced clinicians seven days a week, out-of-hours and on-demand, giving you the reassurance that when you need support, we’ll be there.

We’re underpinned by the conviction that we can improve patient care and experience. Whether by way of extra hands onsite, reporting and reviewing support via our reporting team, or training and mentoring support for junior and non-accredited staff, our goal is to be your consistent, specialist open-support partner.

Yes, absolutely. We use a secure, cloud-based, zero-footprint viewing and reporting platform which allows you to store, view, and refer your exams through a secure web browser on any PC.

In 2008, the King’s Fund report ‘Technology in the NHS’ had this to say about the decade to follow:

“The Ideal Scenario 2018: The benefits of adopting technology are fully harnessed; clinicians and other staff within the sector, as well as consumers, are comfortable using technology and do make full use of it. The use of technology enables improvements in the quality of care received by patients, in addition to offering an improvement in their overall experience of contact with the health service.”

How can we, and our patients, be assured that their data is managed and stored securely in the cloud?

Information security is of the upmost importance to us here at ICS Diagnostics. Our parent company ICS Group ensures we are General Data Protection Laws (GDPR) and our Information Governance statement is updated regularly to ensure we’re meeting the latest requirements. In addition, the Group:

• Holds IG Toolkit & Cyber Essentials certification

• Has a dedicated Caldicott Guardian to ensure adherence to all Caldicott Principles

Our technology partner hosts and manages patient healthcare data via Amazon Web Services for a number of large established healthcare providers across the UK and holds the highest possible ISO certifications. They are committed to complying with all regulatory requirements, including the highest levels of data protection and safeguarding.

We work very closely with our customers and their IT services to ensure data security is a priority throughout the entire process. Once each report has been completed it is returned to our customer’s location of choice and can simultaneously be sent to the referrer for timely management or action.

Our in-depth understanding of the UK’s cardiology diagnostics industry has allowed us to take a holistic view and adopt a different approach. We’re backed by Independent Clinical Services (ICS). ICS owns and operates a range of specialist healthcare brands - including a number of leading NHS framework staffing businesses - and is one of Europe’s largest healthcare staffing providers.

ICS Diagnostics was born out of the ICS Group physiologist staffing network. We have an extensive UK-wide network of experienced accredited echocardiographers available to support your service both onsite and remotely, wherever your location.

Our secure, zero-footprint, cloud-based echocardiogram viewing and reporting platform allows you to store, view and refer your exams through a secure web browser on any PC.

Understanding there are equipment and space limitations from time to time, our scan-only service and real-time remote reporting will help you maximise your capacity and patient throughput using your existing infrastructure.

We can also support you in looking at ways to expand your service capacity.

We understand how important trust and quality assurance is, which is why we’re led by accredited, experienced, senior-level chief cardiac physiologists.

We believe in long-term relationships and are driven by the conviction that we can make a positive difference to diagnostic testing in the UK. We collaborate with our clients and support them in a mentorship capacity which is underpinned by comprehensive and robust systems to ensure the highest standards of clinical and medical care.

Our responsible echocardiographers, whether scanning or reporting, will hold full accreditation, and will have their work regularly assessed by both internal and external governance processes. We have identified a set of parameters against which we continuously benchmark our service provision.

As a CQC registered provider, we robustly comply with all regulations. We encompass both national and local guidance, best practice and our customers’ contractual requirements. All staff members adhere to recognised training standards to ensure they’re continually working ethically and responsibly.

We are committed to ensuring effective clinical governance, which helps us consistently deliver a commitment to quality and learning.

Quality assurance is at the heart of ICS Diagnostics. First and foremost, we only work with the most experienced clinical professionals - all our responsible reporting staff are experienced, accredited echocardiographers.

We have identified a set of parameters against which we continuously benchmark our service provision. For reporting, we have identified specific quality indicators which measure the quality of our reporting against BSE reporting guidelines.

Through our CQC registration, our internal governance processes ensure we continuously monitor the quality of our clinical work. We also work closely with an external advisory board consisting of experienced consultants and physiologists which ensures our service provision is assessed and strengthened regularly.

We work very closely with our customers to pre-determine all triaging processes, thus ensuring clinical quality, efficiency and patient safety is maintained at all times. To safeguard patients, we triage patient and test data using pre-agreed markers at three points:

• Point of contact and assessment prior to scan

• Post-scan when all images have been collected

• Post report

Agreed and consistent actions are immediately taken, allowing those responsible to determine the appropriate clinical pathway. This is why we work with the most experienced, accredited echocardiographers.

ICS Diagnostics is not only committed to achieving clinical standards, but also to achieving operational efficiencies. As part of our partnership agreement, we will provide you with tailor-made reports to reassure you that we’re delivering exactly what we promise.